My parents have been watching everyone else on the block add a floor to their one-story house. Now, they want to add one so that I get my own floor of the house, and don’t have to go looking for a place to live once I graduate (and thus, get to take care of them and to bear the title, “lives with parents”). One bonus is that I get to make my own floor plan. Sure, this’ll probably be better off left to some professional, but I think it’d be kind of cool to have certain rooms in certain places.
For example, the bedrooms are on the west side of the house, and the living room on the east, which means that my Saturday morning cartoons are never without obnoxiously bright glare. I’m planning to throw the living room on the west side of the house, and the bedrooms on the east.
The problem is, I realize, that my parents sleep early. How good is affordable soundproofing between floors? I mean, I’m not going to have 120w subwoofers pounding basslines for the neighbors to hear, but there are going to be people around every once in a while, and there will be a lot of walking and running around, along with some DDR, perhaps.
Also, how close to each other do the water-needing rooms (kitchen and bathroom) need to be? The kitchen and bathroom in my little imaginary home are going to be shifted about 10 or so feet over.
Anything else I might need to know? I’m pretty much working off of the little scraps I remember here and there of drafting class.
There are a few engineering considerations you will want to take into account. You will probably have to have a structural engineer sign off on the bluelines anyway, but might as well save yourself some hassle now.
First, water is important, as you alluded to in you post. You will save yourself many headaches by lining up bathrooms. Much easier and cheaper to stack wastewater and venting that running it under the floor. Kitchen is not as important, but still a consideration. The bigger the kitchen, the better off you will be having it close to the downstairs kitchen, preferably with the main utilities on the same external wall. If all you need is a faucet, mid sized fridge, and electric stove, you have much more flexibility.
Also, it is a very good idea from an engineering concern to have a couple load bearing internal walls match up on the first and second story. You can swap sides (bedrooms and living room), but try to line up some of the walls with the ground floor.
Sound insulation. Biggest thing you can do is insist on larger than average floor joists that are closer together. If code is 2x8 spaced 24” apart, request 2x10, 16” apart. Also go about 50% up on all the flooring materials. 1” instead of 5/8” plywood. Same for carpet padding. Use screws instead of nails wherever possible on the flooring. Lots and lots of screws. If you are concerned about music, there is some spray on insulation that has excellent noise reduction.
Last but least. Don’t forget about the walk in closets.
I think that the first thing you should consider is your budget.
You then have to make a list of priorities.
Basically, yes, you can indeed have a kitchen 10’ from the bathroom, but…it’s gonna really cost you. Thus, you have to decide what’s more important to you:
the kitchen being 10’ away or say, the sound proofing.
As for 'affordable sound proofing", this all depends on what your definition of affordable is. There are all sorts of diffirent types available. Which one will be best for you depends on the structure you have.
I honestly think that your best bet is to contact your contractor. Tell him/her what you want and what your budget is. Then he/she can tell you how realistic you are being. The contractor will let you know how much materials will run you.
My experience is that the material cost will always be more than you expected.
One last thing:
You don’t state how old you are. the reason I ask is because say as an example you are going to move out in a year or so. It might not be worth it to your parents to spend the extra $ on sound proofing a room that, in a year’s time, will not need it.
Thanks, guys. Also, BNB, I’ll be taking up permanent residence on that floor once I graduate from college and move out of the dorm. My parents aren’t caring all that much about the money. I’ll be paying them off once I start making money, and they say that this is cheaper than just buying a whole new house.
Hm. Never thought about load bearing walls… How exactly would the process work out if I left it to the contractors, anyway? They give me a bunch of possibilities, and I get to pick one?
You contact a contractor. You tell them your needs and budget.
The contractor will look the space over and get back to you. You can, at this point let them know what you are thinking of doing. They may, right off the bat, tell you something is not possible.
You will then receive a generic plan. If you have modifications on it, you discuss with the contractor. They will then tell you what can and can’t be done in your price range.
Of course, things do vary. This is just a rough idea of how it will work.
Some contractors may not want to do any planing at all for you and will refer you to an architect/Struct Engineer. This will be especially true if you want to do something major. If you go through an architect/ Struc. Engineer, you will have to pay a fee to them as well.
When I worked in architecture, my firm handled quite a few jobs such as these. Some jobs were easy to do and some had hidden factors: The land was unsuitable, the foundation had problems, code issues, etc.
I hope this helps.
Well, I’ll go with pretty much whatever is possible, but it’d be kind of cool to have my own entrance on the side of the house, where the stairs up would kind of coincide with the stairs inside that go down to the basement. That way, I don’t have to bother leading a big pack of friends through my living room or something, and introducing each of 10 or so of them to my parents and whatnot.
As for doability, the house right next door (the houses on my block look to all be cut out of the same template or something) added a floor a few years ago. I haven’t been inside their house, but it looks to be more than possible. One thing, though. The second floor looks to be clearly tacked on as an addition, and not an acutal part of the house. Is there any way I could end up without this “cake layer” effect?
I’m curious as to the cost, though, as little as it might matter: will the entire operation end up costing as much as or even more than a whole new house of the same size as the floor I’m adding?
Thanks a lot, everyone. You’ve all been a lot of help, along with a lot of inspiration (at first, this all started out as just a strong consideration, and now I really want to have it done).
Without seeing what your house looks like, I can’t tell you about the ‘cake’ effect.
I can tell you that it more than likely can be avoided. Again, this depends on how much you are willling to spend.
As for an add-on costing less that a house? Don’t be too sure about that.
Granted, it might not be as much as a new house, but it may end up being comperable to an older home, depending on the neighborhood. This also depends on how much you are building and how ‘nice’ you want it to be.
Your best bet would be to ask your neighbors how much they paid (if you feel comfortable doing that).